Celebrating the creativity, history, and ecology of Killeagh
with events in Glenbower Wood & at Greywood Arts, Killeagh Cork
Funded by Cork County Council, Youghal Credit Union, Community Foundation Ireland and the Small Scale Local Festivals and Summer Schools Fund from the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media. Sponsored by 25 local businesses.
Pre-Festival Workshops
Bealtaine Banners Creative Workshop
Thursday April 17th
11am – 1pm OR 2pm – 4pm
Friends and fans of Glenbower Wood are invited to explore its spring and summer sylvan colour palettes through a FREE design workshop with artists and designers from Greywood Arts and Chapter Design.
Participants will learn to apply design principles such as pattern and repetition in the creation of large scale banners that will set the stage for events at this year’s May Sunday Festival.
We’ll playfully design individual mini flags before collaborating on bigger ideas. We envision these banners will be linked into the trees beside the playground in Glenbower Wood, showing our community’s creativity and pride of place.
Great for adults and families with kids age 7+
Places are free but limited, so booking on Eventbrite is advised.
In addition to our design event, we will also hold a Sewing Up Day on Wednesday April 23 from 11am.
Volunteers with some basic sewing skills are invited to help fabricate the flags. Experienced sewers will be on hand to guide the process.
If you are interested in taking part in the sewing up day, please email us directly for further details to greywoodhq@gmail.com
This event is kindly funded by Cork County Council Arts Office and Youghal Credit Union.
Experimental Eco-Dyeing & Printing
Fully booked but you can join the waitlist here: Eventbrite
See our 2024 festival highlights here.
Check out the full 2024 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
create@greywoodarts.org or 08308451750
LOOKING BACK: May Sunday Festival 2023 Art Trail
Click here to see more images from the 2023 Art Trail!
LOOKING BACK: Our May Sunday Festival 2022 was full of music, dancing and fun – see the video below for the event highlights.
HISTORY
Glenbower Wood is situated on what used to be the estate of the De Cappell Brooke family in the village of Killeagh, in East Cork. In the 1830s, De Cappell Brooke began making improvements to his home as well as the land surrounding. After the improvements had been completed, De Cappell Brooke invited the entirety of the community to celebrate on the first Sunday in May. This became a yearly event known as May Sunday. It was the only day of the year on which the Wood was open to the public. The date also, perhaps not so coincidentally, coincides with ancient Druid “Fertility Rite” that would have been celebrated on the same date with hopes for a fruitful year and the Feast of Our Lady.
In the 1920s, the festival became very popular, spilling out of the Wood and onto the main street. It was a colourful event which featured music, dancing, food, and many other activities. Unfortunately, in 2001 the festival was unable to proceed due to Foot & Mouth disease. After a nearly 20-year hiatus, Greywood Arts revived some of the May Sunday traditions, placing the emphasis back on the festival’s origin in Glenbower Wood. In 2018, a reimagined version of the festivities celebrated local creativity, history and ecology through a programme devised in collaboration with artists and community groups, and supported by Cork County Council. Building on the success of the revived festival, the activities expanded in 2019 – and in 2020 the festival was once again cancelled – this time due to Covid-19. 2021 saw our first Art Trail as a Covid-safe way of marking the transition to summer in Glenbower. With restrictions lifted, 2022 celebrated live performance. 2023 was our biggest endeavour yet, with live events and an Art Trail spanning the first two weeks of May.
2018 & 2019 Festival Archive at www.creativekilleagh.ie
greywood arts 